With Ian Machado Garry out of the UFC 296, Vicente Luque is left without an opponent and a fight. Kevin Holland, nonetheless, wants to step in to replace Garry and face the Brazilian in a 180-pound catchweight bout.

UFC CEO Dana White confirmed that the Irish fighter had to withdraw from the fight after being advised by the doctor to rest due to pneumonia. In line with this, the executive said the Luque-Garry fight was scrapped from the event. However, there are no other details on whether the promotion is looking for a replacement for Garry to allow Luque to fight before 2023 ends.

Fortunately, Holland, who just had his last fight in September after losing to Jack Della Maddalena via split decision, suggested volunteering to replace “The Future.” In his recent post on Instagram, “Trailblazer” expressed willingness to face Luque in a catchweight fight. The idea was immediately accepted by Luque.

“So guys, I saw that Kevin Holland wants to jump in to substitute for the fight Saturday night, and I want to tell you guys I’m down,” Luque said in his post. “So Kevin, if you’re really down to come here, let’s do this. Let’s mix it up. Let’s get in that octagon and go to war, and hey, I’m willing to do 180, so we can do it at 180, and let’s put on a show for all the crowd.”

Luque’s team reportedly reached out to the UFC to share Holland’s offer and push the fighter, but there’s still no confirmation on whether this is approved by the promotion.

Currently, with the removal of the Luque-Garry bout, the current lineup of UFC 296 includes:

MAIN CARD

  • Welterweight Title: Champ Leon Edwards vs. Colby Covington
  • Flyweight Title: Champ Alexandre Pantoja vs. Brandon Royval
  • Shavkat Rakhmonov vs. Stephen Thompson
  • Tony Ferguson vs. Paddy Pimblett

PRELIMINARY CARD

  • Josh Emmett vs. Bryce Mitchell
  • Irene Aldana vs. Karol Rosa
  • Cody Garbrandt vs. Brian Kelleher
  • Ariane Lipski vs. Casey O’Neill

EARLY PRELIMS

  • Dustin Jacoby vs. Alonzo Menifield
  • Cody Durden vs. Tagir Ulanbekov
  • Lucas Almeida vs. Andre Fili
  • Martin Buday vs. Shamil Gaziev
  • Randy Brown vs. Muslim Salikhov
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